Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

He looked at the slips of paper one after another, walked to the wall, and finally looked at the documents on the wall, carefully reading and memorizing every piece of information.

This information includes various documents, as well as handwritten notes and investigation records.

Without a doubt, this was all done by the man named Sanchez. During the time he stayed in 109, he tried every means to collect information related to Shirakawa Apartments and prepared for his final action.

A reporter investigating street and building numbers discovered the number of a mysteriously missing, unnamed apartment building; however, the person in charge claimed it was simply a data error.

Inquiries with the residents of Qingquan Apartment yielded no results. They remembered the devastating flood they had experienced, but had no recollection of a place called Shirakawa Apartment ever existing across the street from their apartment building. Everyone had forgotten about that place.

[A new commercial street has been completed, and a large number of businesses are about to move into the new district of our city!]

[The suburbs of yesteryear have now become a bustling urban area, yet the vacant lot at the former Shirakawa Apartments remains undeveloped, even though the surrounding area has been transformed into a vibrant commercial district. Why does everyone instinctively avoid developing that vacant lot?]

The restructuring of the city's rescue team is basically complete; we will do our utmost to protect the safety of citizens.

[Infiltrating the rescue team's archives, no rescue team number information for the Shirakawa Apartment was found. Were their documents erased? Or were they already dead, and everything about them was swallowed up by the apartment, making them impossible for anyone to remember?]

Residents trapped in the apartment, while still alive, are able to temporarily leave to see people they know. However, aside from close family and very close friends, ordinary friends, superiors, and colleagues become indifferent to the person's situation and gradually begin to forget anything related to them.

But as long as this person is still alive, traces of his existence can still be found in the real world, and things related to him can still be found.

[Xu Sheng... If you are truly still alive, why can't we find any information about you? Why are you hiding a rescue team uniform in your closet? How many more things are you hiding from us? Are you really doing this for everyone's good, to help us?]

The apartment number is still there; the information about this apartment hasn't been completely erased. There should still be something else we can find. Maybe I should try a different approach.

[They infiltrated the city police station and found the original occupancy register for the Shirakawa Apartments. The occupant information for room 304 was damaged and could not be recovered; only the registration date could be found.]

The investigation into all residents of Shirakawa Apartment has been completed. No residents have been found still alive. All residents of Shirakawa Apartment who moved in at the same time as or after the residents of Room 304 have passed away, and all of them died within one year after the flood. Their families do not have any valuable information.

[Perhaps this line of thinking is flawed; if the police station could preserve some documents, maybe they could find something else?]

[An investigation of the police station's old archives revealed a mediation record for a dispute between residents of 304 and 309. The original mediation document has been lost, and the case can only be inferred from the police report information. It appears to be a domestic dispute, but no further useful information can be found.]

Why is it 309?

[It was discovered that the resident information for unit 309 had changed once, and there had been a relocation that was not recorded in the file; the original resident's information could not be found.]

Further investigation into the dispute mediation records has yielded new results. Audio recordings of the mediation were preserved on magnetic tape. I've obtained the tapes, but now I need a tape recorder. These have been discontinued for a long time; I don't know where I can buy one.

The records outline the process by which this man named Sanchez explored the past of the Shirakawa Apartments.

It has to be said that this guy is quite capable; he managed to infiltrate various places in order to find useful information and actually managed to get quite a lot of things.

However, he didn't leave behind much useful information, and the vast majority of his investigations ended in failure. In Gao Hai's view, the most noteworthy information was related to 309.

Room 309 is the room that Xu Sheng mentioned he lived in, as listed in the rules.

Previously, everyone's focus was on rooms 109 and 304, but room 309 did not receive enough attention. After all, in Gao Hai's view, it was just the place where the organizers of the previous generation of survivors lived.

But now, with the discovery of Sanchez's investigation, Gao Hai has to include room 309 in the list of rooms that require close attention.

I walked up to the table where various documents were laid out.

Gao Hai pulled out a chair and sat down, then reached out and opened the diary on the table.

I secretly made a copy of the key to room 309 and entered his room on the Sunday when Xu Sheng was away.

[Nothing gained]

There was nothing unusual about that room; it was exactly the same as every other room in the Shirakawa Apartment.

Perhaps we'll have to come back at night to see if there are any abnormalities?

I've decided to take the risk and stay in this room until night. The "problems" in the Shirakawa apartment are mostly quiet now. Although I'm more likely to be in danger since I've already changed rooms once, I have to find useful clues this time no matter what.

[Nothing gained]

[No matter day or night, there were no abnormalities on 309.]

Was my thinking wrong?

Perhaps we should go back to 304; although it's fraught with danger, we might actually find some useful clues there.

However, the last time we explored 304, we made quite a commotion, which led to our discovery. We'll have to be more careful from now on.

This guy even had a key to 309 made and sneaked in there for a whole day...

Gao Hai frowned and continued flipping through the pages.

Many pages of the diary had been torn out, or were simply blank, so he had to flip through several pages before he found a page with writing on it.

[6th exploration of room 304]

No matter how many times I come here, it's still hard to get used to the environment. The whole room feels completely chaotic, with all sorts of things mixed together in a maze-like world.

Crossing this area under the noses of "those things" was incredibly difficult, but thankfully making some noise would distract them.

This time, at least we need to investigate the situation in the living room thoroughly.

The 6th time?!

Is room 304 a place where people can come and go as they please?

[11st Exploration Record of 304]

[Three individuals were identified as distinctly different from the other bodies: an adult male, an adult female, and a male child.]

Why are there four sets of bowls and chopsticks for three people?

[14st Exploration Record of 304]

They were repeating their behavior from their previous lives. The male would beat the female after drinking. This was the first time I had ever seen such brutal...abusive behavior.

I stole a few IOUs; this family had a lot of them.

The man's name is Li Youcai, and his wife's name is Xu Jiazhen. The IOUs I received alone add up to over 100,000 yuan. How could someone living in a place like this have the ability to owe so much money?

[19st Exploration Record of 304]

Today, the two adults called the boy's name, Li Meng, a name that really doesn't sound like the boy at all.

[So far, I have observed six different repetitive behaviors of theirs. Each time, only these three people are present, but whenever there is a mealtime, they set out four sets of bowls and chopsticks. Is there a fourth person in this room that I just haven't noticed?]

[In that sense, the boy's voice was quite distinctive, but according to the descriptions I received from the residents who had experienced the knocking incidents, the knocker's crying was muffled but had a somewhat shrill quality, sounding more like a little girl's cry.]

There must be places I haven't found yet.

There must be another hidden room, a hidden place, in room 304. Only by finding that place can we uncover the whole truth.

[21st Exploration Record of 304]

I know her name now, it's called—

Gao Hai closed his eyes.

He didn't look any further, nor did he continue reading the words in the notebook.

A strong stench of alcohol wafted behind him, accompanied by the heavy breathing of a man.

A woman's cough could be heard in the room, along with the sound of her footsteps moving slowly behind Gao Hai.

And a boy's suppressed laughter, and you could almost feel fingers gently poking your back, one after another.

"..."

Gao Hai remained silent and still, sitting motionless in his seat.

The voices of the three men rang out behind us, one after another.

It's as if this is actually their house, and they are living here.

The sound lasted for several minutes before gradually diminishing and eventually returning to silence.

Gao Hai waited until the smell of alcohol completely disappeared before opening his eyes again and looking at the notebook in his hand.

He turned to the next page without looking at the previous page of records.

[The 22nd Expedition to Exploration Site 304]

However, the records that began on this page were all torn up and could not be read.

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Starting Point of Touching Forbidden Grounds

After the 21st exploration record, which documented the name of the last of the 304 residents, no further readable records could be found.

Every page had been completely torn out. Considering that no one else should have entered this room, it was very likely that the writer himself tore them up.

Because he knew information about the most taboo child in the Shirakawa Apartment, he was severely corrupted and destroyed even more dangerous information before completely losing control? Speaking of which, this person entered 309 and 304, and mentioned leaving a tape here. I wonder if we can find the corresponding item here.

Gao Hai closed his diary and then looked at the files on the table.

These sealed files were clearly stolen from various archives by this man, Sanchez, through all sorts of means. To be honest, it's a bit unbelievable that an ordinary person could do such a thing; I wonder if he used some kind of supernatural power.

Gao Hai didn't look through the files. Firstly, there were too many files, and he vaguely sensed that he wouldn't be able to stay here for very long. Secondly, compared to exploring these files that might not contain any key information, it was more important to confirm the clues that had already been found.

Thinking this, Gao Hai stood up, scanned the room with his eyes, then walked to a row of hooks next to the living room door, reached out and took down a small key strung on a thin rope.

On one side of the key, the number 304 is engraved. Could this key be the way to 304?

In the previous cycle, Gao Hai had already seen the location of the door to 304. Now, the third floor of Shirakawa Apartment has been completely transformed into a distorted place. It is unknown what has become of 304, the place of origin.

Whether or not you go, having the items in hand is enough. After all, there's a big difference between having a choice and not having one.

Next, Gao Hai searched through all the cabinets in the room and finally found a cassette tape in a metal box in a small drawer.

The tape itself looked rather old, and to be honest, Gao Hai thought that even if he found a tape player that could play it, this thing might not be able to produce any sound.

Next, let's see if there are any clues.

As Gao Hai put away all the keys and tapes, he was thinking and about to walk towards the table where various files were placed.

zizi——

At that moment, he heard a piercing noise coming from the computer screen on one side of the room.

I turned my head and saw the computer screen lit up.

Despite the blurry image quality, Gao Hai saw that the screen displayed what his living room looked like. It even seemed to be a real-time monitoring system, able to see Gao Hai himself as he walked to the computer and stared at the screen.

squeak-

The living room door opened at that moment, making a noise.

It's not the living room door in the real world, but the living room door on the computer screen.

Gao Hai saw the living room door open on the screen, a man walk into the room, go straight to the desk, pull out a chair and sit down.